Painting our 58 Bonneville
 

Getting ready to finally paint our 58 Bonneville. The original color is Redwood Copper over white. The car was painted a very similar (but not correct) color prior to us getting the car so the dash and interior match, a color change isn’t really an option. The body work is done, the spear and top are painted white and we are having trouble with the paint code.

It appears that Redwood copper is only available in very high level paints. The additional cost for this color is 2-3x normal paint.

Options are:

1) pay for the extra cost of the paint to be correct. The cars value warrants it, probably never sell it and want it to be right.

2) spray a test panel with the expensive paint and use a sensor to match it. This gets us close to the color with minimal additional cost.

3) take the glove box off and have it matched. The dash will match the car perfectly but the color isn’t right. The color on the car was more ‘chocolate’ when the correct color is more ‘root beer’.

4) pick a modern color that is close

In my opinion only #1 or #2 are viable options. The car drives great and is in very good condition - the previous owner/ body shop did not prep correctly and the paint started to bubble up and flake off.

Once the paint is done the car is ready to be enjoyed….. what would you do???

Looking forward to the thoughts and comments!

This is the car when we bought it to give you an idea of the color.

I painted cars for a long time.
Began by mixing auto paints at a Dupont and SherWill jobber.
Every shop I've worked at - away from home - we had our own mixing systems.

Have seen so many changes since the early 80's there is no way I would expect any company to have a formula that would accurately reproduce a 1958 color.
Those tints are long gone and formulas superseded and improvised.

If you have any area of original color left on the car , get matched to that.

If you pick a modern color that mimmicks it closely on a chart ,
a point of awareness is if you do 5 spray outs from 5 different brands you will get 3-5 different shades of what were all supposedly the same color for the same car/manufacturer.

The sure bet is to use the Sikkens color map , but then you are practically married to buying high end color.
They have an economy line called Lesonal they can most times mix the formula in , but see above about the 3-5 shades.

If you have to have econo color , start with small quantity -- if it looks "right , on the mixing stick" -- then do a spray out with letdowns using 3 different air pressures.
Then clear coat the sample and investigate.

The color on it now looks okay indoors , but not so good outdoors.

Nice ride, is this a factory optioned Tri-power?

Yes it’s a factory Tri power car. It looks like the cost isn’t going to be much more than expected- about 2k. Probably just go with the more expensive option

I thought I would update this with a few pics of the Bonneville painted. I picked up the Bonneville and dropped off the WS6 to be painted.

She’s a beauty!

Really looks great. Congrats
They were the Pace Car for 1958

Very nice! Are you happy with the color?

What a stunner!

Thanks guys- I’m very happy with the color. It looks like metallic red oxide in the shade and gets a nice copper/orange-ish tint in the sun. Lots of flake- not a bass boat but not far off. We pulled a piece of the door panel that the painter said buffed like lacquer (hoping it was original) and used that to match the color.

The brakes are getting looked at now, I have wide whites and a set of spinners (I think off a 61 or 62) to go on next week. Hoping to find some 58 Spinners at Ames in a few weeks. Still a lot of buffing and trim to work on but very happy with it. It did fire right up after sitting for 4 years which was nice.

Looking good!!!

love the Redwood Copper, nice choice


Maybe some day I will be painting Redwood Copper

Very nice- there was a red 58 Star Chief wagon at John’s Auto Salvage in Seguin, TX when I was growing up (93/94?) that had the hood bent up. We always called it Elvis because it looked like it was snarling.

OMG, what a beautiful car. The color is drop-dead gorgeous. Best of luck with finding the rest of your needed original (correct) parts.

That car is amazing!